June 13 Churchill + Ogden Phipps Points Picks go here . . .

[cal828]

Originally Posted by JolyB

The scores might not reflect it, but we certainly had plenty of excitement in yesterday's races, especially the two stakes. I was disappointed that the 5th couldn't count, but felt vindicated when Art Collector put on a great show. The stretch drives of both stakes were outstanding, with Santana justifying his trip from Louisville by finding just enough of an opening for She's a Julie to fit through for an upset win in the Phipps. I thought she was seriously off form, but that wasn't the case at all. In the Louisville, Admission Office dispelled any reputation for finding trouble by driving down the middle of the track to beat Arklow in a great finish.

Bill Mott didn't get #5,000 despite several good chances. Reminds me of ARod's quest for homerun #500 - you keep waiting for it to happen and I imagine he just wants to get it over with. Maybe today. He looks live in the 1st at BEL [fittingly named Road Home] and has three runners at CD who could make it happen.

She's a Julie looked like she was off of form and it didn't look like she had any races that had a pace that yesterday's race promised to have so I left her off my contest play, but in the back of my mind I knew that was a dangerous thing to do with any horse that has won a grade one race so for my real play I put a little saver wager on her. Didn't help me in the contest, but nice not to lose real bucks on her with my sometimes dunce like plays.

[cal828]

Joly, after our discussion last week of Grant County and Sheridan, I did a little research of my own. I too enjoy history and took a goodly bit of it in school. I think the answer to the naming of Grant County might be fairly simple. I think it happened in the early days of reconstruction which means that the Arkansas legislature was in the hands of Northerners, Blacks and Northern sympathizers; however, that does not explain the naming of the city of Sheridan which happened after reconstruction which ended in 1872.
Read a little bit about Sheridan. Must say he was a pretty interesting character. Had to laugh at one of the things he said about Texas. After the war, the South was divided up into districts with a couple of generals to see to the administration of each district. Usually the districts were a couple of states. Arkansas and Mississippi were a district and Texas was another one to which Sheridan was assigned. Anyway, General Sheridan was not fond of Texas and a saying attributed to him was "If I owned Texas and Hell, I'd rent out Texas and live in Hell." Don't mean any disrespect to Texas as I have spent some of my life there and I have a connection to that state in that my mother was a Texan.

[JolyB]

Cal, I also found it somewhat curious that whoever named Sheridan, Ark decided to name it after a Union general. The town was named in 1887, and at that time, Phil Sheridan was the commanding general of the US Army. As you pointed out, reconstruction has long since been bargained away by then. Given the scorched earth policy he had employed during the campaign in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864, he was hated in the South as much as Sherman. After he completed that campaign, it was said that "if a crow wanted to fly down the length of the Shenandoah Valley, it would need to carry its own food."

An interesting sidebar to Sheridan is that when Chicago's Washington Park Race Track organized the American Derby in 1883, he served as the track's first president.

By the way, I share part of your connection to Texas - my Mother was also born there, in the small town of Clifton. The town attracted a large number of German speakers from both Germany and Switzerland, including her parents, and she told me that as a young girl she mostly spoke German until it became inappropriate to do so shortly after the Lusitania was torpedoed.

[cal828]

As I understand it, he employed that same scorched earth campaign against the plains Indians in that he tried to deny them their ability to procure food by shooting their horses and he also reportedly thought that the depletion of the Buffalo herds was a good thing. Don't know for sure, but wouldn't be surprised if the newspapers of the time deified him and demonized the native peoples which might have been the motivation for naming the town after him.

I knew about those German speaking folks in Texas. I think that New Braunfels is a town established by the Germans back in the early 1800s, if I'm not mistaken. I think some of the early settlers in Arkansas were also Germans and Swiss. I think they are responsible for settling some of the towns along the Arkansas River.

[DonGuido]

Originally Posted by cal828

As I understand it, he employed that same scorched earth campaign against the plains Indians in that he tried to deny them their ability to procure food by shooting their horses and he also reportedly thought that the depletion of the Buffalo herds was a good thing. Don't know for sure, but wouldn't be surprised if the newspapers of the time deified him and demonized the native peoples which might have been the motivation for naming the town after him.

I knew about those German speaking folks in Texas. I think that New Braunfels is a town established by the Germans back in the early 1800s, if I'm not mistaken. I think some of the early settlers in Arkansas were also Germans and Swiss. I think they are responsible for settling some of the towns along the Arkansas River.

Yes that part of Texas near Austin with the rolling hill, rivers, creeks, locally brewed beers, German food and heavily wooded areas is beautiful. Many Deutschland influences. Patty and I have visited and stayed in that area many times.